


Shade

by propheticfire



Series: Viren Week [7]
Category: The Dragon Prince (Cartoon)
Genre: Birthday Fluff, Canon Compliant, F/M, Fluff, Married Life, Viren Week (The Dragon Prince), Viren Week 2020, Viren being a good dad, family times, mild suspense
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-11
Updated: 2020-04-11
Packaged: 2021-03-01 22:21:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,432
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23604472
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/propheticfire/pseuds/propheticfire
Summary: When Viren's wife abruptly leaves on a trip, Viren is left wondering what she could possibly be doing. But he has the kids and Harrow to keep him company until she returns.
Relationships: Viren/Viren's Ex-Wife (The Dragon Prince)
Series: Viren Week [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1690708
Comments: 5
Kudos: 18





	Shade

**Author's Note:**

> This last day of Viren Week was a "free day", but I struggled so hard to write something without a theme prompt. So I stole the one-word idea "shade" from a different writing prompt for this fic.

Viren’s wife shifts in the bed beside him, rolling toward him and resting her cheek against his shoulder. He looks down from his book.

“I’m sorry dear; I didn’t mean to wake you.”

She smiles up at him, her face half in shadow from the dim candlelight. “You didn’t. I was just thinking. Whatever happened to that lovely leather shoulder covering that Harrow gave you for your birthday last year? The one with the red lining, and the gold designs.”

Viren thinks. “It might be tucked away in a chest somewhere. Why?”

“Why don’t you ever wear it?”

He should have worn it. He knows Harrow would probably want him to wear it. But he hadn’t had the heart to tell Harrow that he’d forgotten a key component for the wearing of it, and Viren had never made the time to go and look for it himself.

“It doesn’t have a clasp to keep it closed.”

“Ah, I see.”

“Why did you want to know?”

His wife yawns. “Just curious. I’ll leave you to your book now.”

“No need. I should finish for tonight.”

He marks his place with a ribbon and sets it on the bedside table beside the candle, which he swiftly blows out. He can’t see his wife’s face in the darkness, but he slides down in the bed until his head is approximately where hers is, and leans in to find her lips for a soft, slow kiss. “Goodnight dear.”

“Goodnight.”

The next morning, after breakfast, his wife announces that she’ll be out most of the day. “Would anyone like me to pick up anything while I’m gone?” she asks, as she’s donning her warm cloak and boots.

“Jelly tarts!” Soren exclaims.

“Frog eyes!” Claudia exclaims louder.

“Perhaps another bottle of ink,” Viren says, trying to balance the empty plates to bring them to the washbasin. “Will you be back for dinner?”

“I don’t know; possibly.”

“I’ll make enough for all of us then, just in case. Have a good day, dear!”

She bids them farewell and exits their suite in the castle. When she’s gone, the kids flock to him.

“Daddy can we go outside? Will you make snowpeople with us Daddy? Will you read to us? Can you make us hot chocolate? Can you make the snowpeople come to life? Will you go sledding with us?”

Viren smiles, ruffling both the kids’ hair with his dishwater hands.

“Eeew, Daaad!”

“How about this? You help me dry these dishes, and then we can go make snowpeople.”

“Okay!”

It ends up being a lovely day. He’d planned to do some research, but enchanting a family of snowpeople for Soren and Claudia and then curling up with them by the fire with hot cocoa and an adventure book proved to be even more enjoyable. He cooks dinner as they nap on the sofa, letting them rest until it’s ready.

His wife doesn’t come home until long after they’ve finished. He’s just herding the kids into bed, in fact, when she walks through the front door.

“Mommy! Mommy!”

So much for prompt bedtime.

They stay up a while longer, while his wife reheats the stew and the kids recount their day. She’s brought jelly tarts, and the ink, but no frog eyes. Claudia is disappointed, until her mother offers her some small glow toad-shaped gummy candies. Finally Viren and his wife coax their children into bed.

“Did you find everything you were looking for, dear?” Viren asks, while his wife cleans the rest of the dinner dishes.

“Not everything.”

She leaves it at that, and he doesn’t press. They retire to bed soon after.

The next couple of weeks pass like this, with his wife gone more often than she is home. Viren tries to question her about it once, and it almost devolves into a shouting match, until they notice Claudia in the doorway, asking for a drink of water. He doesn’t want to do this. They’ve started reacting to each other like this lately, and he doesn’t want to. He decides not to press it further.

Eventually she announces that she’s taking a trip. She doesn’t know exactly when she’ll be back, but hopefully before mid-April. That’s over a month away. Viren helps her pack her horse, and the kids wave to her as she trots out of the yard.

“I keep feeling like I’m missing something,” he says to Harrow one day, after the first of April passes and his wife still hasn’t returned. “Like there were signs I was supposed to see, and I missed them. What do you think is going on?” Despite his efforts not to, he feels a shade of suspicion about the situation.

“I don’t know, my friend,” Harrow answers. “What reasons can you think of to explain her actions?”

“I don’t know. That’s what I mean, Harrow, I’m _missing_ something.”

Harrow only offers him a pinched smile and a pat on the shoulder. “Would now be the wrong time to tell you about this girl I met?”

His birthday comes around. He doesn’t even remember it until Harrow and the kids surprise him with cake and gifts. “Oh so _this_ is why you offered to take my children off my hands this morning!” he teases, as Claudia places a fingerpainted paper hat on his head and Soren presents him with a clumsily wrapped journal, whose inside cover is decorated with a crude but lovingly crafted drawing of their family. Harrow has a sumptuous meal prepared for them by the castle staff, and they pass the evening in good company.

They retire to their suite finally, and Viren hugs his children close before tucking them into bed. “Happy birthday Daddy!” they wish, as he kisses each of them on the forehead. “Thank you, my children,” he says back, “I’m grateful, and I love you. Now go to sleep.”

He decides to do a little reading before bed, and loses several hours in front of the fireplace, engrossed in his books. He’s about to call it a night when the front door opens, and his wife all but tumbles through, breathless. On instinct, he jumps up to aid her.

“Is it still…” she gasps, “your birthday?”

He puts a hand on her shoulder to steady her. “Yes?”

_“Oh good.”_

She covers his hand with her own briefly, and then crosses the room to collapse on the sofa. Viren follows, gently lifting her legs into his lap as he sits down. “Are you okay?”

“I was…so worried…I would not make it in time… I’m sorry…it took so long.”

Viren undoes the buckles of her boots and slips them off. “Where were you?”

She holds up a finger, indicating she needs a moment. When she finally catches her breath, she sits up, and pulls a small parcel out of the pocket in her cloak. “I ran here, from the stables. I left Duren almost a week ago.”

“You went to _Duren—?”_

“I searched everywhere in Katolis, but I finally found it in Duren. And then I had to have it crafted, so it took longer than expected. I had planned to be home sooner. I’m sorry.” She takes his hand and presses the parcel into it. “This is for you.”

With a questioning glance, Viren unwraps the small package. Inside is a golden clasp, set with a brilliant purple cabochon. Suddenly he realizes. “Is this for…”

“Your shoulder piece, yes.” His wife’s eyes light up. She presses closer to him, pointing at the bits of the clasp. “We’ll have to get these ends attached to the leather, and then it unclips here, but it should be sturdy enough to hold. The stone is what took me so long. I tried to find one to match the stone in your staff, and I’m not sure if this is quite the right shade of purple, but it was as close as I could find from memory. And it’s a conduit stone as well; it will help you store magical energy.”

Viren stares at the clasp, speechless. This is… It’s beyond what he would have ever thought to ask for. A tinge of bitterness creeps into the back of his throat, at the knowledge that he’d begun to suspect far worse from her. But it quickly melts away as she twines her fingers with his.

“Well? Do you like it?”

“Dear, it’s…”

His expression must be enough to convey how moved he is, because she smiles her warm smile and leans in to kiss him, soft and slow, the way he loves.

_“Happy birthday, Viren.”_


End file.
